SALINAS >> Construction of the city’s fifth high school is so severely behind schedule that officials will have to decide soon whether it can be open for the 2018-19 school year.

The reasons for the delay, according to a report given to trustees by Superintendent Dan Burns, are the weather and a delay to build the skylights for the building.

“The manufacturing (of the skylights) has delayed us two or three months, just on their own,” Burns told trustees at their regular meeting on Oct. 24.

Trustees broke ground for Rancho San Juan High School on Rogge Road in April 2016. According to Burns, the contracts spelled out construction would take place over 730 days plus 17 days in case of weather delays, just in time for the 2018-19 school year.

“Anything after that, the contract says there could be liquidated damages imposed on the general contractor for not completing on time,” Burns said. “The contract, though, says … additional time could be granted for acts of God or flooding.”

Burns warned trustees to be cautious in their comments because the issue could end up in litigation given contractual language, and announced he would be consulting with lawyers about the issue.

During an hour-long discussion, trustees talked about not just the reasons behind the delay but whether there are people or institutions to blame. Trustee Sandra Ocampo was quick to point fingers at staff members,

“I have to represent the interest of my community and to me, this is unacceptable,” she said. “I’m sorry for the incoming evaluations, this has broken my heart tonight. You’re so much behind in this project.”

Trustee Lila Cann was more reflective and ready to take some of the blame.

“We have a responsibility to our community and we promised to our community (the high school) would be open,” she said. “We’re the bad guys here. Maybe (we are) more responsible because we did not ask for reports, but what we heard was that things were going well.”

The most pointed back-and-forth came from Trustee Kathryn Ramirez, who saw darker forces behind the delay: people who are against “project labor agreements” and are intent on showing school officials they were right.

In September 2015, trustees approved using a “project labor agreement,” a contract that establishes terms and conditions of employment, for the construction of the high school. Project labor agreements, or PLAs, are favored by unions and abhorred by construction companies. The vote followed months of spirited debates with construction companies lobbying trustees to vote against it and union officials lobbying for support.

On Monday, the Salinas Taxpayer Association asked trustees to suspend the PLA for the duration of the project, and to come up with a plan to speed up construction at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.

“Whether or not the Project Labor Agreement had any impact on the project failure, it is a policy that distinguishes the district’s high school construction from what every other Monterey County local government is doing with its construction projects. Why must it stay in place?” Kevin Dayton, president of the Salinas Taxpayers Association, said in an email.

On Monday, Burns said the discussion before trustees is how long it will take to complete the school. The discussion won’t be whether the PLA will be cancelled or even whether the project is over budget because it’s not an issue at this point. On Oct. 24, he went over the delays and said the PLA had nothing to do with them. The problems were the weather and the skylights, which have a domino effect in the construction. Without the skylights, electricians can’t do their work because the building can get wet. Same thing goes for the drywall.

“There’s other things that are happening at that place,” Burns said. “Roofing, plumbing, sprinklers, but that main building can’t move forward until the skylight is there.”

At this point, contractors and architects are estimating the earliest the school could be completed is Oct. 2018, two months after the start of the school year, Burns told trustees. But a more realistic timeline would be December 2018 or May 2019.

“If we try to open first week of August, we would need the building a month before but at least July 31,” Burns told trustees. “The architect’s best guestimate is this building will conceivable not be done until May 2019 based on the cost analysis alone, but December is pretty reasonable.”

Burns is using cost-analysis to determine how fast construction is going. Trustees will have a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss existing contracts and determine how to move forward.